And if I Keep Hitting My Head with this Hammer

(a public service message)

I'm sure I've mentioned in conjunction with my coffee "problem" that I've had migraines with attacks dizziness and vomiting for many years, and have been through all of the standard treatments. I'm now treated at a special center for people with treatment resistant migraines, and they are great, but I still wasn't achieving my goals (I didn't want to get carsick driving a block, or get dizzy under the lights of the grocery store etc and I hated asking my kids to be quieter or Momma might throw up).
Dr. Bloom had had a clerkship with a primary care doctor who had practiced acupuncture along with Western medical solutions. He thought maybe it was worth a shot for me -- while the research on many conditions and acupuncture isn't solid, for migraines it's pretty good. Anyone with chronic migraines knows that anything with any potential is worth a shot.
I've been going for a session per week for a few months, and I've never been better. I still follow the treatment plan designed by the migraine center, but I have far fewer migraines with much less severe pain, managed to travel by plane AND train without vomiting, and am rarely dizzy. Ever critical, at first I thought it was the placebo effect -- though if I thought it was the placebo effect, it shouldn't be able to work, unless I'd set up all kinds of complex defenses, which of course I might have . . . But interestingly, before the onset of a migraine, I now have twinges where my needles are placed, thumb side of the right wrist, and the midline of my abdomen. Pressure at the wrist can curb the nausea as it starts. Part of that may be the mindfulness itself, but even if that's so -- it's working.
I'm now tapering -- I'd be suspicious of anyone who said treatment was needed every week for the rest of one's life -- and we'll see if the improvement holds. (I read an encouraging study about IF and AF and acupuncture, too . . .)